Why have humans always sought power? Why did these small creatures want to rise above all other beings on the planet?
Literally, humans were among the smallest entities. The seas were unimaginably vast, deep, and terrifying. The deserts were long, persistent, and barren to a devastating degree. The sky stretched above everything, covering it all like eternity. And there were also the mountains that challenged the sky's height. Yet despite all these colossal entities, the planet we live on remained very small and ridiculous compared to the universe.
And in the midst of all this, humans were truly creatures so small it was laughable.
In the eyes of these entities, humans weren't much different from mosquitoes.
But these small creatures never stopped. They always strove for power, elevation, domination, and rule!
...Simply put, it made no sense to me. There were many creatures the same size as humans, and even larger, but they didn't attempt that. Lions lived in the forests, hunting. Bears lived in the mountains, quietly feeding from rivers. Deer lived freely in the plains, eating and drinking.
So why did these creatures called humans desire and try to dominate all other entities? Damn it.
There have always been dreamers who wanted to possess a lot and obtain a lot.
I think I heard one of them say once: One day, I will step over mountains and rivers.
Well, all that seemed very silly and boring to me. Why did humans have to suffer for all this?
Since I was young, I always thought...
Why can't all humans gather together in one place? A beautiful tropical place by the ocean, surrounded by fertile land for farming, and they remove all the bad things from that land.
They share roles and agree never to leave here.
The farmer remains a farmer, the hunter remains a hunter, and so they live in peace, far from robbery, rule, and all those things. Well, that didn't seem bad at all. It would be a beautiful, peaceful world, like the life of a solitary woodcutter on a mountain.
.
.
Well, maybe one day I myself thought I wanted to have everything I desired, but after a short while, I threw that thought away and stomped on it immediately.
It seemed too tiring, full of suffering and exhaustion. For me, the ideal life in my view was easy and never extravagant.
"All I wanted was a beautiful house—not necessarily large, important to have a kitchen, a bathroom, and two rooms—and to get good internet, and spend all my days reading beautiful novels, flipping through the pages of comic stories, and watching enjoyable works, and to have three edible meals a day. It was fine for me if my menu only contained three dishes and three types; that was good enough for me.
Spend quiet days in this isolated house, not caring what happens outside..... Isn't this paradise?"
.
.
Well, I remember my father once said a sentence:
"Life was never made for comfort."
Well, he was right. Life has always been, in the full sense of the word, a hell for humans. And they had to create their paradise within this hell!
Perhaps desire, goals, and domination were something monstrous, but humans needed them!
---
Sami stood while wiping the blood from his clothes. He looked carefully at the dozens of corpses before him, and in their midst was a massive corpse—that of a giant warrior who had turned into a monster fifty years ago—whom he had killed with his own hands.
He averted his gaze from all that, began dusting off his silver armor, and started walking among the dozens of corpses with a cold look in his eyes.
Sami thought:
In the beginning, I just wanted to live a normal life, like my father.
Then at some stage, I wanted to save the world and eliminate all evil.
And after that, I was content to live well, me and all those I loved.
And finally, just walking the same path and completing it like the rest of the herd was good enough for me...
Then after that, nothing mattered anymore. I failed at everything. I gained nothing.
And now, I just hate everything. Truly, all I want is to destroy everything.
Sami looked around him.
He distributed his gaze among the destroyed buildings and the burning corpses.
All this was his doing and no one else's. He had killed every life in this city. He cut down with his sword those he could reach, burned those his sword couldn't reach, and buried those he couldn't cut under the buildings. He had created a complete battlefield all by himself.
Then he lifted his gaze upwards towards the beautiful moon. But at that moment, it was the ugliest thing Sami had seen in his life so far... He thought:
"Did all these souls have to be extinguished for you to appear, you damned moon?"
He sighed heavily, as if removing the weight of the whole world... and said:
"Damn, I want to rest a little."
He lowered his gaze with an emotionless face, full of wounds, and black eyes brimming with thoughts. His face resembled the end of the world.
With his smooth hair, strands of it fell down.
Sami looked at his hands—or rather, his arms. They were stained with blood. There was a horrific wound on his left arm, and it seemed to still be bleeding. His silver armor, now full of cracks, was stained. Sami looked at his hands; on them was a necklace that appeared black, reflecting nothing. It was made of a material he didn't recognize and didn't want to. In its center was a gem the color of sky-blue, reflecting all the beauty of the world and also all its ugliness.
This necklace was what he obtained after killing every human in the city.
Sami lowered his hand and put the necklace in his jacket pocket. He dropped his hands as if they had suddenly fallen, and finally walked in silence, not speaking at all...
---
A lone young man, covered in blood, wearing shattered silver armor that once must have been beautiful with a moon engraving on its chest—now barely visible.
His body was entirely covered in a stream of azure blood, cuts, and burns.
He walked in silence through the streets of the destroyed city.
He passed by the stone temple, once beautiful, now just a black temple full of a sea of corpses and blood, completely devoid of any life. Sami passed by it without even turning his head.
Then he passed by the house where he had spent days before... The small house was destroyed, fires burning inside, and in the midst of the flames was a burnt corpse that didn't look like anything, but Sami recognized it in the end—he was the one who put it there.
Sami continued on his way, walking through the center of the city, the beautiful moonlight reflecting the existing horror.
The city was completely silent, no life remained. The stone city, which was once one of the most beautiful landmarks, had now become just a destroyed battlefield that looked like the end of the world... showing the extent of human ugliness.
And in the midst of all this, the lone young man continued on his way. Finally, he reached the gate, the only monument that still remained as he knew it, at least.
"It seems he will exit from the same place he entered, but he won't leave for the same place he entered."
His gaze remained as rigid as ever, as if detached from everything around him, hiding inside himself.
He continued his way in silence and walked through the sea of golden sand under the silver moonlight, leaving behind the city surrounded by mountains, and finally...
He walked through the desert... empty of anything.
"He didn't want this, nor was he ready for it, but in the end, the law of the ordeal overpowers everyone."
And finally, the young man moved his lips, forming a very ugly smile with the blood staining his face, and let out a pained sound:
"Well... on the positive side, I'll be going home... That means I should be happy, right?... Because I'm Bound...."
He fell silent again, but the expressions on his face changed. There was only emptiness and pain.
Suddenly, he let out a suppressed scream.
"Damn it!!!! .... Damn everything!"
"This was the only choice... It doesn't matter if I was right or not."
"Was it because of human desire? I don't care."
"Did I do something wrong? Doesn't matter."
"Am I really okay? I don't care."
And suddenly, the sand around him moved. Dozens of stone giants emerged from all sides. Under the moonlight, they seemed in their natural place, and their golden color shone.
They began moving towards Sami, who stood motionless.
And suddenly, he raised his hands towards the moon... and in its center was something...
A necklace made of black material that reflected nothing, with a sky-blue gem in its center that reflected everything beautifully and contradictorily.
The giants stopped in complete silence, as if an external force had halted them.
He walked between them, then moved away into the desert.
And finally...
---
A lone rock gleamed under the moonlight, in an endless desert. Breathtakingly beautiful, it looked like a masterful painting.
A lone young man leaned against it, wearing shattered silver armor full of holes from which azure fluid dripped. A fur cloak wrapped around him formed a scarf around his neck, falling down beautifully, though it wasn't spared from the fluid that planted a deep red color amidst its beautiful gray hue. With his black hair flowing down, he looked with emotionless eyes towards the moon, a sad smile on his scar-filled face.
He raised his arm, which bore a horrific wound in its middle.... and from his palm dangled a black chain.
And finally, he moved his lips, removing the smile from his face, and in its place appeared a killer's coldness.
He sighed with a hoarse voice...
"It's impossible that this is really a dream!"
Suddenly, a voice came from the void, as if answering him.
A voice that seemed devoid of anything, as if belonging to the void itself:
[You have survived the First Ordeal.]
[You have proven your worth, Sami.]
[It is time for the Purge.]
---